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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Launch Party for "Reached" and the fun that Kimberly had there.

My experience at the launch party for Ally Condie's "Reached"

So a couple weeks ago I told you all
about getting to go to the launch party for Ally Condie's Reached,
that was a week ago today. I've been to multiple author events, but
never a launch party. The King's English Bookstore hosted the event,
and they did a fantastic job. They even organized a blogger's
conference before the party where me and a few other bloggers got to
sit and chat will Ally. It was me, Jessica from Cracking the Cover, Jessica from Books: A True Story, Jenni from Jenni Elyse, and Suey from It's All About Books.We loved talking to Ally who is an absolute delight. She is kind,
and witty and a blast to chat with. I was madly scribbling notes the
whole time, most of which are illegible. I was able to decipher some
of my horrendous handwriting, thankfully. Here is a brief account of
our discussion. These are not all word for word. I can only write so
fast. (Sorry)

Question: Was it hard for you to choose
between Xander and Ky?

Ally: I didn't really even know who it
was going to be. It wasn't until about a third of the way into
Reached that I knew who it was going to be.

Question: How do you feel now that it
is over?

Ally: It doesn't really feel done yet.
I want to hang onto it, savor it for a while.

Question: The first book had a theme
of poetry, the second was art... What's the third?

Ally: Music. I hope so at least! That's
what I intended!

We talked about several other things,
but you don't really want to read the whole thing, do you? Plus, I kinda got distracted by the conversation and forgotten about taking notes.

We asked her what she was currently
reading and she told us she had just finished Michael Phelps' autobiography. She told us she had really enjoyed it, admired and was
astonished at the amount of dedication it takes.

She also mentioned one of the
highlights of Reached being released was that John Green had read
Reached and really enjoyed it, AND tweeted about it!

After that we went to into the main
room with everyone else, Ally had drawn in quite the crowd. (Which
only made me feel even more spoiled that I'd been lucky enough to go
to the bloggers conference.)

(Ally and the life sized version of REACHED)

Ally revealed a few other tidbits
during the main event. One audience member asked about the movie. If
you didn't already know, the rights to the Matched Trilogy has been
purchased by Disney! She told us that she didn't have any input on
who would play who but did say that if she had a choice Nathan
Fillion would be in there somewhere.

Someone else asked who she liked best,
Xander or Ky? She explained that she couldn't possibly pick a
favorite because she had taken all of her favorite traits about her
husband and given half to Xander and half to

When asked who her favorite character
to write about she said that Indie was a surprising favorite.

She was asked if she typed or hand
wrote her stories and she said that mostly it was typing, but if she
ever gets stuck she pulls out a paper and starts writing it out by
hand, once she gets back on a roll she switches back to the computer.

One of the last questions she was asked
was what did she consider her greatest accomplishment? (Being
published didn't count.) She replied that it was having a family, to
her that is the greatest thing she's done.

I had a blast, it was exciting to be
there, meet Ally and some more bookish friends. I'm not really sure
how to wrap this post up, so here is a picture of me in the bubble of
the cover of Reached.

It was so so fun to see you there even though I felt like a total goof ball in my Cassia Matched dress haha! Ally was so wonderful as usual. I've finally started Reached and I'm definitely enjoying it.

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